The Wilson Brewer Historic Park Committee approved a grounds-side plan to present to the Webster City City Council during the committee’s meeting on Tuesday morning at City Hall.
The plans, which detail updated landscaping and new walking paths at Wilson Brewer Historic Park, will be presented to the city council at its meeting on Nov. 18.
“The reason they want it at that time is because we need to put together plans and specs for bidding purposes for next spring,” said committee chairman Gary Groves. “I think it’s important and timely, then, that we try to put together a final plan that we can come up and agree on.
Project engineer Wayne Schlotfeldt showed the committee two versions of a plan draft that he had made after taking comments and suggestions from previous meetings about this project. On Tuesday, the committee, along with other interested parties, discussed the drafts and decided which aspects of the drafts they felt fit best with the spirit of the project.
The plan that the committee will present to the city council will include an increased amount of parking, including adding more handicap accessible spots to allow visitors to park closer to both the cabins and the depot. Instead of adding a sidewalk running parallel to Superior Street, the new plans have a paved path that will run alongside an Illinois Central train caboose that will be placed on display next to the Depot Museum in the coming weeks.
The committee also gave its final approval on indoor lighting for the Brewer-Groves and Jameson cabins. The lights will be focused LED low-voltage strip lights that will be concealed in order to keep the inside of the cabins appearing historically accurate. The plan also includes concealed electrical outlets to power electric lanterns.
Bob Oliver gave the committee an update on the Illinois Central train caboose the park committee purchased earlier this year. The caboose was purchased from a seller in Sugarland, Texas, near Houston, and it was originally supposed to be transported to Webster City earlier this month. However, heavy rains in the Houston area caused issues with the plan to move the caboose to be delayed.
Oliver estimates the $32,500 caboose will finally make its way to Webster City in the first weeks of November.
Once it arrives, it will be placed on display next to the Depot Museum at Wilson Brewer Historic Park.
View this article as it originally appeared in the Daily Freeman-Journal.
Last modified: October 30, 2019